Introduction A company’s code of ethics should support the organization’s core principles and a personal code of ethics should reflect an individual’s core principles and ideals. My personal code of ethics is rooted in the values I was taught over time, in the principles I learned to cherish and uphold. These principles are related to the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would like to have done to you. In other words, I believe one should treat everyone as one wants to be treated. I value honesty, truth, communication, and innovation. I believe that the more that people engage with creative ideas, the better they can make themselves and this world. To that end, my code of ethics also has a global and sustainability perspective. I believe that the earth is finite and that we all share in the universal need to sustain the environment and protect its and our own interests with respect to it. I believe we should be working towards sustainable solutions to age old problems of energy consumption, pollution, conservation and waste. In this paper, I will describe the personal and professional code of ethics that applies to my life and my profession, show where values between my professional and personal codes of ethics overlap, and explain how I can integrate the values from my personal code of ethics into my professional code in order to build integrity.

Personal Code of Ethics

My personal code of ethics is guided by the Golden Rule: do good to others and show love to your neighbor. Implicit in this rule is the concept of being honest and truthful, of never trying to deceive anyone; there is also the sense in it that one should be of service to other people, because that is ultimately how you do good to them. By serving others, one demonstrates the capacity for servant leadership (Paris & Peachey, 2013). Serving others to help them grow, obtain what they need, gain support, and learn is part of the core principles I had that make up my personal code of ethics. May main objective with regard to my code of ethics is to serve others and demonstrate servant leadership so that others can grow and develop and in turn be of service to still more people down the road (Hunter, Neubert, Perry et al., 2013). The strategy to achieve this objective is to constantly ask others what I can do to help and always put myself at their service.

I also believe in strong communication, as communication is what helps ideas to get from one place to another and is what helps people to come together, relate to one another, and form solid relationships. My code of ethics has as its secondary objective to communicate effectively with people—and to achieve that goal I utilize my emotional and social intelligence skills so that I can pick up on verbal and non-verbal cues that people give to me regarding information that they are trying to convey and that they want from me in return (Cacamis & El Asmar, 2014). The strategy to achieve this objective is to always verbalize my communications with others and keep communications positive so that they promote supportive feelings.

I also value and respect other cultures in my Code of Ethics by recognizing that all people everywhere...

By understanding our collective perspectives and identifying the common themes and universal goodness among them, we can work together to unite towards achieving a greater common good. I recognize that everyone’s perspective is important and I make a personal effort to understand other cultures and show respect to all people by empathizing with them and putting myself in their shoes whenever I can. This too aligns with the concept of servant leadership in that by showing empathy we can give support and help each other to grow. My third objective is to show respect for other cultures by studying them and devoting some time each week to learning about a new culture so that I am more knowledgeable on all the different backgrounds and ethnicities in the world today. I will not lose my grounding in my own culture, however, because I will still engage in traditional customs and practices that are important to my friends and family within my own background.
In terms of sustainability, my Code of Ethics also focuses on working to sustain the environment. Protecting the environment is a core principle of mine as it is something that belongs to everyone in the present and those who will come in the future—so it is something we must take care of. My fourth goal with respect to this code is be more environmentally-friendly by adopting the following strategy: to recycle everything that can be recycled, to conserve energy on a daily basis by turning off lights and commuting to work, and to by products from green companies.

My Professional Code of Ethics

In business management, the professional code of ethics that applies to my profession aligns well with my personal code as it also promotes honesty, transparency, communication and sustainability. In my profession, the code of ethics that is utilized is focused on the mission of putting the customer’s needs first while simultaneously striving to make a positive difference in the world by practicing sustainability. The concept of leadership is essential to this professional code, especially for business managers, because they must lead their workers, motivate them, give them a vision to pursue and help them when they run into obstacles that they must try to get around. Authentic leadership is valued in my profession and workers respond well to it. Authentic leaders are defined as individuals who are genuine, self-aware and self-actualized: they are able to motivate themselves, communicate honestly and openly and reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses in an effort to improve themselves on a routine and consistent basis (Wong & Laschinger, 2013).

My professional code of ethics is also oriented towards the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy of my organization, which has sustainability promotion as one of its core principles. CSR policies are based are on the principles and ethical imperatives that the organization judges to be important to the communities in which it operates. As community members are important stakeholders in the organization, their voices and opinions matter deeply…